Posts for: June, 2018

Even with picture perfect teeth, you may still be unhappy with your appearance. The problem: too much of your upper gums show when you smile.

There’s no precise standard for a “gummy smile”—it’s often a matter of perception. As a rule of thumb, though, we consider a smile “gummy” if four or more millimeters of upper gum tissue show while smiling. In any event if you perceive you have a gummy smile, it can greatly affect your self-confidence and overall well-being.

The good news is we can often correct or at least minimize a gummy smile. The first step, though, is to find out why the gums are so prominent.

There are a few possible causes: the most obvious, of course, is that there’s more than normal gum tissue present. But the cause could be the front teeth didn’t fully erupt in childhood and so the gums appear more prominent. Other causes include the upper lip moving too far upward when smiling (hypermobile) or an elongated upper jaw that’s out of proportion with the face.

Finding the exact cause or combination of causes will determine what approach we take to minimize your gummy smile. If too much gum tissue or not enough of the teeth show, we can use a surgical procedure called crown lengthening to expose more of the crown (the visible part of a tooth), as well as remove excess gum tissues and reshape them and the underlying bone for a more proportional appearance.

A hypermobile upper lip can be treated with Botox, a cosmetic injection that temporarily paralyzes the lip muscles and restricts their movement. But for a permanent solution, we could consider a surgical procedure to limit upper lip movement.

Surgery may also be necessary for an abnormal jaw structure to reposition it in relation to the skull. If, on the other hand it’s the teeth’s position and not the jaw causing gum prominence, we may be able to correct it with orthodontics.

As you can see, there are several ways varying in complexity to correct a gummy smile. To know what will work best for you, you’ll need to undergo an orofacial examination to determine the underlying cause. It’s quite possible there’s a way to improve your smile and regain your self-confidence.

If you would like more information on improving a gummy smile, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Gummy Smiles.”

When they’re introducing a new movie, actors often take a moment to pay tribute to the people who helped make it happen — like, you know, their dentists. At least that’s what Charlize Theron did at the premiere of her new spy thriller, Atomic Blonde.

"I just want to take a quick moment to thank my dentists," she told a Los Angeles audience as they waited for the film to roll. "I don’t even know if they’re here, but I just want to say thank you."

Why did the starring actress/producer give a shout-out to her dental team? It seems she trained and fought so hard in the action sequences that she actually cracked two teeth!

“I had severe tooth pain, which I never had in my entire life,” Theron told an interviewer from Variety. At first, she thought it was a cavity — but later, she found out it was more serious: One tooth needed a root canal, and the other had to be extracted and replaced with a dental implant — but first, a bone grafting procedure was needed. “I had to put a donor bone in [the jaw] to heal,” she noted, “and then I had another surgery to put a metal screw in there.”

Although it might sound like the kind of treatment only an action hero would need, bone grafting is now a routine part of many dental implant procedures. The reason is that without a sufficient volume of good-quality bone, implant placement is difficult or impossible. That’s because the screw-like implant must be firmly joined with the jawbone, so it can support the replacement tooth.

Fortunately, dentists have a way to help your body build new bone: A relatively small amount of bone material can be placed in the missing tooth’s socket in a procedure called bone grafting. This may come from your own body or, more likely, it may be processed bone material from a laboratory. The donor material can be from a human, animal or synthetic source, but because of stringent processing techniques, the material is safe for human use. Once it is put in place your body takes over, using the grafted material as a scaffold on which to build new bone cells. If jawbone volume is insufficient for implants, it can often be restored to a viable point in a few months.

Better yet, when grafting material is placed in the tooth socket immediately after extraction, it can keep most of the bone loss from occurring in the first place, enabling an implant to be placed as soon as possible — even before the end of a movie’s shooting schedule.

Will Atomic Blonde prove to be an action-movie classic? Only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure: When Charlize Theron walks down the red carpet, she won’t have to worry about a gap in her smile.